The present invention relates generally to stock material feeding equipment and, more particularly, to a feedstock cutting and feeding device for forming machines for bolt nuts and similar products.
In conventional bolt and nut forming machines, the several forming dies are arranged in sequence, at equal distances from each other, and in the order of the forming operations, such as the rod-cutting die, the first, second, and third forming dies, and the final pierce punching die. After the feedstock is fed to and positioned from the rod-cutting die a specified length outside the end face of the die, it is cut off by an advancing cutter supported at the front end of a reciprocating rod-cutting shaft, which moves at a right angle to the axis of the rod-cutting die. Simultaneously, the feedstock is cut off by the cutter and forced into a die for punch-forming before it is conveyed to the next die by the rod-cutting shaft. Thereafter, as the rod-cutting shaft moves backwards, the feedstock is ejected from the rear and held between the clamping arm of a transfer clamp to be conveyed to the sequential forming dies by the left and right movement of the clamping arm within the range of 180.degree..
In this way, after cutting the feedstock, the advancing movement of the rod-cutting shaft must be equal to the distance between two successive forming dies, usually about 60 mm. The distance is very long, and because of the time wasted by this motion, it is impossible to achieve high-speed operation, thus decreasing considerably the efficiency of the forming machine. As a result, a feedstock cutting and forwarding device of complicated structure is required. It is obvious that the conventional device is far from practical.